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| The size of a grapefruit |
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| I Nuc'ed the Swarm |
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| Not fully elongated yet but growing |
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Showing posts with label Catching a Swarm. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Catching a Swarm. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Another Swarm??
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Friday, August 19, 2011
Summer Update #3 - Heléna Swarmed
The bees hadn't been checked for a month. In that time they were very busy; not making comb in the empty Deep above them but making Swarm cells instead. They had become honey bound on the ten frames out of the twenty they had drawn out.
So without much adieu on July 15th they took off. Though not far. About forty feet into a small pine tree. Which we found soon enough. I had no interest in getting them back and offered them to the neighbor. She wanted them but could not get up into the tree to get them. So i had to go get them anyway. Grrrrr...
The swarm we captured was around 2lbs. worth of bees. The Queen was not marked so it was a new one. No telling what ever happened to the original Georgia queen. An inspection of Heléna found eight swarm cells and one supersedure cell.
The neighbor put the bees in a spare box on her deck and named them 'Maybee'. They are doing fine and taking down the syrup.
The best part is i now have a local queen in Heléna. All the better to get her through Winter with.
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So without much adieu on July 15th they took off. Though not far. About forty feet into a small pine tree. Which we found soon enough. I had no interest in getting them back and offered them to the neighbor. She wanted them but could not get up into the tree to get them. So i had to go get them anyway. Grrrrr...
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| That's me in the tree maybe 20 feet up |
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| How to keep your Neighbor Happy... |
The best part is i now have a local queen in Heléna. All the better to get her through Winter with.
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Saturday, May 21, 2011
Swarm, Queen in Super, & Other Notes
Keeping up with the bees has been a daily chore lately. Catching the Swarm on Wednesday (5/18) was great but all the equipment had to be borrowed. The issue with that was the neighbor uses Mediums only. Yesterday (5/20) the medium frames and the Medium Nuc were traded out for all Deep equipment; the quiet box is now in service. On a good note the new bees had drawn almost a full frame already. I like these bees.
The full story on the swarm is straight forward. The Wife saw the swarm before Noon then called me at work. After work we went back and hived them. They were very cooperative in that the swarm quickly accepted the nuc. They were all in it and calm within an hour. We came home, put them on the stand, and fed them. They've been busy since. When i traded all the equipment they were calm and passive. I guess the swarm was at about 2 pounds. Good haul! Oh, and the tree the bees were swarming on was a bee tree. I marked it with flagging and notified everyone in the club. We'll all watch it for years to come. Welcome Nuc #5.
Equipment issues:
I'm out of woodenware. This Spring i started with 2 full hives. The plan was to add one more full hive, via package, and make 2 Nucs. The equipment for all was made and ready to go. However what happened was more than i had hoped for. On top of the what was planned I made a third Nuc and caught two swarms; the third Nuc is insanely productive and will be made into a full hive as soon as another box is available.
I have decided to make all the woodenware I need instead of buying it. 4 Nuc bodies, 2 Nuc covers, 2 Nuc Inner Covers, 2 Nuc Screened Bottom Board., 2 Nuc Slatted Racks, all for 5 frame Deeps. Also I need 2 Screened Bottom Boards, 1 Slatted Rack, 1 Cover, all for 10 frame Deeps to fix a few issues with the full hives. All of this is needed this year, NOW!, but the budget has been used up. SO...I'll make everything from plywood. Not ideal but doable. Plywood is more susceptible to water damage but is much cheaper. To deal with the water issues I'll need to make sure the end grains are covered and well sealed. If done properly the plywood boxes will last as long as solid wood.
Honey Production:
Queen Mary got into the Honey Super. I notice on Monday (5/16) the bees had drawn a few frames out down to the bottom. I wanted to put the Excluder on then but a rain storm shut me down then and for the rest of the week. Yesterday (5/20) I went to put it in but it was to late. She had gotten to 3 frames, mostly drone cells. Not a problem though. I made sure the Queen was not in the Super then swept the bees off the egg frames and culled them. They went directly into the deep freezer. Left them in for 2+ hours. I figured by then the eggs were sufficiently chilled. Then put the frames back into the Super. The Excluder went on as soon as I culled the frames. I'll check the Super again in a few days.
Queen Excluders are mostly called 'Honey' Excluders around here. Seems bees don't like to pass through the bars and many Supers never get drawn out. To remedy this I modified the Excluders. I cut off the bars on the last inch of each side. That way the Queen won't be in a position to crawl through while worker bees on both side can pass without hindrance.
Other beeks like to place the Excluder sideways on the box. It does the same thing while allowing for additional ventilation. I'd rather keep the sides of the hives closed off. The gap opens up the outside & the top of the last frames. It closes off the inside of the last frames and everything in between. When placing the chilled frames back in I saw the bees actively passing through the gaps.
Myrina is still having a problem drawing out honey comb. To motivate her more I put her Honey Super in between the top & bottom brood boxes. I'll check back in a week for improvement.
The Small Swarm:
Nuc #4, this swarm nuc was still doing nothing. To boost their instinct to act like bees I added a brood frame from Nuc #3 and an entrance feeder. A check in a few days will tell me if it worked. Fingers crossed...
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The full story on the swarm is straight forward. The Wife saw the swarm before Noon then called me at work. After work we went back and hived them. They were very cooperative in that the swarm quickly accepted the nuc. They were all in it and calm within an hour. We came home, put them on the stand, and fed them. They've been busy since. When i traded all the equipment they were calm and passive. I guess the swarm was at about 2 pounds. Good haul! Oh, and the tree the bees were swarming on was a bee tree. I marked it with flagging and notified everyone in the club. We'll all watch it for years to come. Welcome Nuc #5.
Equipment issues:
I'm out of woodenware. This Spring i started with 2 full hives. The plan was to add one more full hive, via package, and make 2 Nucs. The equipment for all was made and ready to go. However what happened was more than i had hoped for. On top of the what was planned I made a third Nuc and caught two swarms; the third Nuc is insanely productive and will be made into a full hive as soon as another box is available.
I have decided to make all the woodenware I need instead of buying it. 4 Nuc bodies, 2 Nuc covers, 2 Nuc Inner Covers, 2 Nuc Screened Bottom Board., 2 Nuc Slatted Racks, all for 5 frame Deeps. Also I need 2 Screened Bottom Boards, 1 Slatted Rack, 1 Cover, all for 10 frame Deeps to fix a few issues with the full hives. All of this is needed this year, NOW!, but the budget has been used up. SO...I'll make everything from plywood. Not ideal but doable. Plywood is more susceptible to water damage but is much cheaper. To deal with the water issues I'll need to make sure the end grains are covered and well sealed. If done properly the plywood boxes will last as long as solid wood.
Honey Production:
Queen Mary got into the Honey Super. I notice on Monday (5/16) the bees had drawn a few frames out down to the bottom. I wanted to put the Excluder on then but a rain storm shut me down then and for the rest of the week. Yesterday (5/20) I went to put it in but it was to late. She had gotten to 3 frames, mostly drone cells. Not a problem though. I made sure the Queen was not in the Super then swept the bees off the egg frames and culled them. They went directly into the deep freezer. Left them in for 2+ hours. I figured by then the eggs were sufficiently chilled. Then put the frames back into the Super. The Excluder went on as soon as I culled the frames. I'll check the Super again in a few days.
Queen Excluders are mostly called 'Honey' Excluders around here. Seems bees don't like to pass through the bars and many Supers never get drawn out. To remedy this I modified the Excluders. I cut off the bars on the last inch of each side. That way the Queen won't be in a position to crawl through while worker bees on both side can pass without hindrance.
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| Clipped off the sides |
Other beeks like to place the Excluder sideways on the box. It does the same thing while allowing for additional ventilation. I'd rather keep the sides of the hives closed off. The gap opens up the outside & the top of the last frames. It closes off the inside of the last frames and everything in between. When placing the chilled frames back in I saw the bees actively passing through the gaps.
Myrina is still having a problem drawing out honey comb. To motivate her more I put her Honey Super in between the top & bottom brood boxes. I'll check back in a week for improvement.
The Small Swarm:
Nuc #4, this swarm nuc was still doing nothing. To boost their instinct to act like bees I added a brood frame from Nuc #3 and an entrance feeder. A check in a few days will tell me if it worked. Fingers crossed...
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Wednesday, May 18, 2011
A Bale of Hay
Let me tell you a story...
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| There once was a Walnut tree |
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| That was in fact a Bee Tree |
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| That had Swarmed this very morning |
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| So the local beekeeper clipped the swarm down |
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| and placed it in a borrowed Nuc box |
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| Where the Queen felt right at home |
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| and they all lived happily ever after |
The End
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Saturday, May 14, 2011
Caught 'em! Sort of...
Myrina's Swarm stayed perched in the tree for 2 days. Both days the cluster grew smaller. Yesterday morning I noticed a pile of bees on the ground in front of Myrina's hive. I laid two undrawn frames down on the pile (it's all i have left!). The bees climbed up on the frames and I put all of them into the Swarm trap I had set out. By lunch the trap was empty and the bees were back in the 'pile'. Then I put the 'Quiet box' over the pile with what few frames I have & a cover. When I got home from work all the bees were in the box. I put the bee covered frames in my last box, a 10 frame deep, and up on the stand with a reduced entrance. I use the Quiet box for inspections so i needed it back.
Today I looked through the 3 frames of bees. There is a queen but the bees don't act right. First, why were they on the ground and not in a tree? Second, The bees don't do anything. They stand around like they're loitering, no activity? I didn't know bees were capable of doing nothing. They're like teenagers on a Saturday morning, just sitting there!
I posted a question about this on the Forum. Word there is to add a frame of brood to jump start them or feed them some syrup. Either way I'll keep you posted.
P.S. - I don't know for sure if these bees are from Myrina's swarm in the tree. It could be that another queen made it out with some bees of her own. The shrinking swarm in the tree was gone by the time I out the box on the pile of bees.
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Today I looked through the 3 frames of bees. There is a queen but the bees don't act right. First, why were they on the ground and not in a tree? Second, The bees don't do anything. They stand around like they're loitering, no activity? I didn't know bees were capable of doing nothing. They're like teenagers on a Saturday morning, just sitting there!
I posted a question about this on the Forum. Word there is to add a frame of brood to jump start them or feed them some syrup. Either way I'll keep you posted.
P.S. - I don't know for sure if these bees are from Myrina's swarm in the tree. It could be that another queen made it out with some bees of her own. The shrinking swarm in the tree was gone by the time I out the box on the pile of bees.
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